Since I’ve moved out here to Seattle, I have discovered a ton of awesome new
music. There are a ton of good local bands (Modest Mouse, Death Cab for Cutie,
Presidents of the USA, and of course Pearl Jam…), and several more great
ones from Portland (The Decemberists, for example). Plus thre is a great
support for local bands and good music in general from the radio stations out
here, especially 107.7 The End. For all the complaining I do about Seattle,
the music scene is pretty good, and much more accessible than Chicago’s (I do
still terribly miss 97.1 The Drive, though. Thank God for internet radio
broadcasting!)

Anyway, it would take me forever to write individual reviews about all the
great music I’ve found, so I’m just going to give brief synopsis of some of
the best new stuff I’ve been listening to.

The End has a new music show every weeknight, and I have heard some fantasic
stuff on it, including this band. You can stream a couple of their songs
online from their website, MorningwoodRocks.com (direct link to the
music page here). You have to listen to The Nth Degree - it’s so awesome.
Reminds me a bit of The New Pornographers for some reason. It’s very poppy,
but it works somehow without sounding too bubblegum. I was psyched when I
found out you can buy some of their stuff in the iTunes Music Store! When I
played it for my friend Dan, he said, “I want more Morningwood!” I heartily
concur.

This summer at Microsoft, while our intern population was quite high, I
started a music-listening thing. We’d get together in a conference room and
everyone would play a song they thought no one else had heard. We only met a
few times, but I am definitely doing it again next year. This band was one
that a guy named Gilbert Bernstein brought in. Fantastic stuff. He played the
song “Tokyo” for us, and it remains my favorite. Unfortunately, I can’t find
any of their stuff on iTunes, but Rolling Stone has some more info on them,
and you can buy the discs from Amazon if you can’t find it anywhere else. If
you want to have a listen beforehand, try Tokyo for starters. Stylistically
it’s pretty indicative of what you can expect from them. Good stuff.